Fourth of July at Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club

BOCA RATON, Fla. - As residents of the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in Boca Raton awoke on Fourth of July morning this year, most knew what the neighborhood would look like.

On every lawn, from one end of the vast seaside complex to the other, a flag was fluttering in the breeze.

It was the patriotic handiwork of Realtor David Roberts, broker/owner of Royal Palm Properties and his staff, wife Marcella and their three children who spend Fourth of July Eve each year placing Old Glory in plain view on the lawn of every home in the development.

For Roberts, who has lived in Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club for more than 20 years, placing the flags on lawns so they can be displayed when the sun peeks over the horizon on Independence Day morning, the tradition shows his admiration for his country and his community.

“I’m proud to be an American, and I’m proud to be a part of Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club,” said Roberts.  “This is how we celebrate the Fourth of July.”
Not only do residents get a warm, patriotic feeling from seeing an 18-inch tall flag on the front lawn, some collect them – and have a dozen or more of the flags that have decorated their lawns over the years.

Often, the flags have a special significance.  The flag-placing that took place in July 2002 – the first Independence Day after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks – was particularly sorrowful, but at the same time, meaningful and sincere.  A couple of years earlier, the Red, White & Blue flew in honor of the men and women who had just made their way to the battlefields of Iraq.

Actually, the tradition of placing flags on neighborhood lawns traces back to something that stuck in David Roberts’ memory – the recollection of a flag being burned on the steps of the Capitol.

The distribution gets a little more organized and sophisticated each year.  On Independence Day Eve, about 15 people, mainly the Royal Palm Properties team, gather at Roberts’ house for pizza and soft drinks before making the annual flag tradition.

“It’s a big event for us,” said Roberts. And soon, the flag raisers broke up into five teams of three each to spread out through the many streets of Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club to make sure no home was missed.

Before their work is done, the teams normally place about 800 flags. And then some return to the route to make sure no yard was missed.

Once the work has been completed and the flags are all there; once the big day has come and gone in a blaze of patriotic events, memorials, fireworks and barbecues, the effects of Roberts’ flag-giving and American spirit often linger on in the hearts and minds of his fellow Royal Palm residents.

“To see the whole neighborhood joined by row after row of flags, leading from one street to another, all throughout this amazing community,” Roberts says. “It’s a feeling I can never get enough of.  And it’s one that makes me so grateful to live in Royal Palm and the United States of America.